Includes bibliographical references and index

Mechanics. Historical synopsis. How the heavens go / Galileo Galilei -- A man obsessed / Isaac Newton. Thermodynamics. Historical synopsis. A tale of two revolutions / Sadi Carnot -- On the dark side / Robert Mayer -- A holy undertaking / James Joule -- Unities and a unifier / Hermann Helmholtz -- The scientist as virtuoso / William Thomson -- The road to entropy / Rudolf Clausius -- The greatest simplicity / Willard Gibbs -- The last law / Walther Nernst. Electromagnetism. Historical synopsis. A force of nature / Michael Faraday -- The scientist as magician / James Clerk Maxwell. Statistical mechanics. Historical synopsis. Molecules and entropy / Ludwig Boltzmann. Relativity. Historical synopsis. Adventure in thought / Albert Einstein. Quantum mechanics. Historical synopsis. Reluctant revolutionary / Max Planck -- Science by conversation / Niels Bohr -- The scientist as critic / Wolfgang Pauli -- Matrix mechanics / Werner Heisenberg -- Wave mechanics / Erwin Schrödinger and Louis de Broglie. Nuclear physics. Historical synopsis. Opening doors / Marie Curie -- On the crest of a wave / Ernest Rutherford -- Physics and friendships / Lise Meitner -- Complete physicist / Enrico Fermi. Particle physics. Historical synopsis. iγ · [delta] [psi] = m [psi] / Paul Dirac -- What do you care? / Richard Feynman -- Telling the tale of the quarks / Murray Gell-Mann. Astronomy, astrophysics, and cosmology. Historical synopsis. Beyond the galaxy / Edwin Hubble -- Ideal scholar / Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar -- Affliction, fame, and fortune / Stephen Hawking

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